Flying with low-lying placenta?

[nopun]

I know this tends to get asked periodically, but I wondered whether anyone here had any experience or useful advice.

At the 20 week scan my placenta was anterior & less than a centimetre from the cervix, but not quite touching it. The question is: do I go on a roughly 2-hour flight at 24 weeks, or even a longer one (about 5 hours) at 28 weeks? Both are for work and a great big hassle to get out of (especially the first one - the second one is less important), but I obviously wouldn't like to put baby or my health at risk any more than sensible.

Has anyone had experience of this or similar scenarios? Both midwives and sonographer had nothing to say other than that LLPs are "one of these things."

Thank you all in advance!

If you were given any advice about this I'd love to hear it! Thank you!

I have a low lying placenta and wasn't given any extra advice or guidance. I flew at 23 weeks and everything was fine - nothing to say that I couldn't. The only place I've been a bit more careful is at yoga.

Thank you Tisonlymeagain, that's good to hear. There is so much conflicting advice out there. I'm so terrified of big bleeds or placenta abruption but do t know whether anything I do or not do will actually make a difference

I was told by my consultant no problems at all re similar LLP and flight at 24 weeks. I don't know if the advice would be different for a longer flight at 28.

Thanks Fratercula! That's really reassuring and make me lean to going on the flight in a couple of weeks but cancelling the later one... Did you have any bleeds in your pregnancy? There seem to be so many people with LLPs and horrific stories of bleeding.

No bleeds at all. But I was recently scanned at 32 weeks and it turned out that although the placenta had been posterior and covering the os at the 20 week scan, it had moved right out of the way by 32. So obviously I was at less risk of bleeds anyway, although I didn't know that! Have you got a repeat scan booked for 32 weeks? It's a long wait isn't it!

Yes it's sooo long! And in the meantime we're damned if we do stuff (working, execising, flying etc) we shouldn't, but with no clear guidelines about what would actually make a difference. Did I see right on another thread that your waters went really early? Did they keep you in for that? Doesn't sound fun at all!

My placenta wasn’t low-lying but I was prone to bleeding. I wouldn’t risk a flight. You can’t begin to imagine how much blood it is possible to loose in such a short time, and how terrifying it is. Sorry if I frighten you but I would say that you won’t (in the long term) regret backing out of this trip.

Hmmm, I'm not a medic but had low lying placenta in my first pregnancy. From what I know, 1cm from the cervix at 20 weeks isn't a "bad" case of low lying placenta. I think it only needs to move another 1-2cm away and you're out of the danger zone where you need to have a c section. If you haven't had any bleeding then that is also a good sign. You can read a lot of horror stories online but they're usually from women who had complete placenta previa where it is covering the cervix, and that is a different kettle of fish.

Having said all that, this is obviously not the time to be taking risks and I can understand why you would be nervous. A PP is right that you can lose a lot of blood very quickly if the worst case scenario happens. It is not good that you've had no advice from the hospital, can you ask to speak to a consultant/registrar (even just over the phone?)

If you are under a consultant then I'd really recommend getting their advice. I have complete previa and of course wouldn't risk flying as it's more risky for me. Your consultant will be able to advise as they would have seen your scans.

Thank you for replying. Switcher13 you're a welcome voice of reason, thank you for making me feel a bit less panicky. Downwenttheflag that sounds terrifying though - and your placenta wasn't even low? May I ask how the bleeds were managed? Were you & baby alright?

Yes consultant was really non committal, only talked about future issues of perhaps needing a C section. When I asked about what it meant for now he just wouldn't be drawn into a discussion.

First ‘big’ bleed was at 22 weeks and had my placenta been low lying I would not have been discharged until baby had been delivered. Continued to bleed intermittently (Hospitalised each time but there was nothing that could be done to prevent the bleeds) until 32 weeks when baby made an appearance! She is absolutely perfect and snoring in her Moses basket as I type.
I was only saying yesterday to my husband that I was mad to have left the hospital (they would have agreed to keep me in because I live 20 mins away from the hospital which was too far should the worst happen, but I was desperate to come home) and risked anything happening while I was at home, particularly had I been on my own.

I was diagnosed with complete placenta previa at about 20 weeks, flew long haul at 24 weeks and 26 weeks and then at my next scan at 28 weeks placenta was in a normal position and not near the cervix at all. My doctor didn't mention there was any increased risk and my understanding with previa is that dangerous bleeding happens if your cervix starts to dilate, exposing the placenta's blood vessels. At 20 weeks it should be really unlikely for this to happen. Once you're further along and if your placenta is still low lying then that's when I'd start to think about not going too far from home/hospital.

Your placenta is really likely to move out of the way (I think something like 96% of partial placenta previas diagnosed at 20 weeks end up moving into a normal position) so hopefully that will happen for you!